Random hot cocoa that some people threw away, and that I found. When I first picked up this hot cocoa, I looked all over on the jar and could not find the ingredient label. Because of the name “silly cow farms,” I had thought it probably includes dairy products.
However, as it was totally free (something that was actually discarded and then I found), I knew that I could use this, with absolutely no future harm to cows that could be associated with it.
Today, I was going to share with you that I finally decided to make actual hot cocoa with this (versus using it in my Chia pudding, which is what I normally do with it). I was going to mention that I don’t know if this is vegan or not.
When I was trying to take this picture, somehow I noticed that the ingredients actually are listed, on the red tag. Guess what, this hot cocoa mix is vegan after all. Completely dairy free, from what I can see from the ingredients (I could always be missing something, of course).
If I’m right about it being dairy free and vegan, then … if you’re looking for that kind of product, it looks like silly cow cocoa could be an option for you. I ended up with two different flavors (hot cocoa powder that other people discarded): chocolate truffle and chocolate mousse.
Now back to my hot cocoa! I started by heating up this good karma unsweetened plant milk in a pot on the stove. This is not the good karma that I usually get, this one has a little bit more calories and a little less protein.
One really good thing about this is that it’s usually a lot cheaper than the other (higher protein) good karma plant milk that I get. This one is 70 cal, 5 g of protein, 0 g saturated fat, 2 grams carbs, 0 g sugar and 0 g fiber. Soy milk is better, nutritionally, than this, but this is what I had on hand.
After heating up the Good Karma plant milk (it’s made with pea protein, whole-grain oats, and flax oil), I poured it into a mug that already had the hot cocoa mix in it.
Mixed it all together and then added Trader Joe’s coconut whipped topping from a can. It was good, very soothing.
One thing I noticed, compared to how I typically imagine hot cocoa, this was not very sweet at all. I have to admit, I was kind of looking for something to satisfy my sweet tooth! This didn’t exactly do that, but at least it was hot chocolatey milk.
I was thinking about dairy milk, I bet dairy milk would have a lot more sugar in it, compared to this good karma flax milk. Is that right? I don’t know if the sugar in dairy milk would be an issue for diabetics or not. Anybody out there know the answer, let me know.
I think lactose has a pretty high glycemic rate, but the protein and the fat, if it’s not skim, should offset the spike. But one thing I discovered when I had gestational diabetes, is that it really depends on the individual. Although I had GD, I only had a slightly too high number after eating plantains. I was sensitive to them, for some reason. Otherwise, I really never had to worry too much. i just made sure not to eat like a boatload of potatoes and have balanced meals, but so long as I did that, which I usually do eat balanced anyway, and I was fine, except that one time I had plantains at a Cuban restaurant. Other people couldn’t eat rice, but could eat wheat bread. Some people couldn’t eat wheat but it was corn, etc.
Actually lactose isn’t that high on the glycemic index. I thought I had read it was. Maybe it was some vegan propaganda that said that. LOL!
Oh, and it has 12 g of carbs per cup, which is all in the form of sugar – lactose. so yes, it has more than the flax milk.
Yes, I don’t know if regular milk is better for diabetics or not … Thank you for checking on this for me. I don’t know if we have a clear answer. Like you said, probably it varies from person to person.
Meanwhile, I was thinking dairy milk might be better for a sweeter tasting hot cocoa, compared to this very non-sweet flax / oat / pea protein milk. Of course, sweetened plant milk would also do the trick. Quite a few different brands of sweetened plant milk have gobs of sugar in them.